White People Do Not Know How to Behave at Entertainments Designed for Ladies and Gentlemen of Colour

“A surprisingly thoughtful book. It is a comprehensive study that takes us to the epicenter of African-American theatre.” — American Theatre

“McAllister has presented a provocative interpretation of Brown’s theater management career. He has taken what seems to be fragmentary historical evidence and has woven it together within an interpretive framework of cultural, literary, performance, and at times, feminist theory. . . . [He] has opened the door for others with an interest in the shaping of American cultural and racial identity.” — Journal of African American History

“Every now and then, scholars set out to do more than they should — and succeed. . . . [An] important institutional moment in the history of American performance.” — Journal of American History

“New and recommended.” — Black Issues Book Review

“A book that offers the most comprehensive and detailed history to date of William Brown’s attempts to establish a commercial theater for African American actors in the early nineteenth century.” — American Literature

“McAllister’s book is the first to give Brown and the African Grove Company the in-depth, critical investigation that this much noted period in African American theater history has so sorely needed for so long. While others have cited Brown as a pioneer, McAllister provides him and his theatrical endeavors with more body and substance in an insightful work that is thoroughly researched and richly detailed. McAllister provocatively and effectively argues that Brown’s African Company was not only a groundbreaking moment in black theater but an early adventure in diversity that embraced this country’s multiethnic potential and as such was a truly American theater. Bold and engaging, this important book fills a void in American theater history.” — Harry Elam, Stanford University

“Relying upon the scholarship of numerous theater historians and critics, McAllister paints a three-dimensional portrait of William Brown as both a man ahead of his time and a man trapped in a warped time machine where preoccupation with unruly white spectators, conniving white business competitors, and a corrupt legal system significantly prevent his theater from taking root and flourishing.” — Sandra G. Shannon, Howard University